+ Why hold into extension during the parietal lift? – October 05
Dear Mr Dalton,
I enjoy your newsletters very much and find your
answers to the questions very insightful. They
have given me much food for thought.
My question is very basic.
I have been told to apply medial compression when
doing the parietal lift. This feels wrong to me
as I feel like I am crushing the patient’s head.
Is medial compression necessary or can I just get
straight on with lifting the parietals?
Kind regards.
J.S.
Austria.
>>>MY COMMENTS:
I’m big, big, BIG on accurate technique so I
don’t think your question is basic at all.
It’s too easy to get all flowery with cranio
sacral and neglect to give the persons body the
sort of expert assistance that comes from having
really good technique.
You’ll read in some cranio sacral books where
they simply tell you to apply medial compression
during the parietal lift.
It’s right, sort of, the point being to
disengage the squamous sutures, which has to
happen before you can begin any kind of superior
lifting. But you will get a better lift if you
enlist the help of the rhythm.
The parietal lift is, after all, a direct
technique so if you can include any indirect
technique in it, all the better.
You can do this by following the parietals into
extension and then holding them there. As you
continue to hold them, the rest of the cranium
will go into flexion and the building pressure
will disengage the squamous sutures for you.
Nifty no?
You’re disengaging the sutures, your probably
still pointing the patient, your including
indirect within direct, it’s got it all.
Once the squamous sutures are disengaged you
can start the superior tractioning intention.
Then it’s a hop skip and jump to the remaining
sutures disengaging and a continuation of the
superior traction until you get a sense of the
falx stretching.
Beauty.
And it all couldn’t happen without the squamous
sutures disengaging. So yes it’s important and
necessary.